Discovery and Basic Research
Ryan Potts, PhD
Executive Director and Head of Induced Proximity Platform
Amgen
Thousand Oaks, California
Adam Gilbert, PhD
Executive Director
Pfizer
Groton, Connecticut
A major challenge facing our industry is coming up with ways to tackle the undruggable disease targets. The scope of the problem is huge, as many as 85% of proteins do not have functional ‘pockets’ that drugs are designed to fill. Although we have made significant strides for certain diseases, there remains a very big challenge for others. What has languished is our ability to act on many of the genetic drivers of disease due to them being difficult to drug by conventional means. Therein lies the opportunity and a need for a new wave of drug discovery to tackle these undruggable targets through the use of multispecific medicines. We are working to usher in this new wave of drug discovery through developing multispecific medicines that work through a principle known as induced proximity, in which they bring two things together, much like a matchmaker. Instead of trying to grapple with difficult targets on their own, multispecific or induced proximity medicines mobilize biological mechanisms or cellular effectors to do the heavy lifting. One of these mechanisms, protein degradation, has shown tremendous potential and is one of the areas we are focused on at Amgen.